2011

December 14 - 21, 2011

Strategic Planning Meeting

The 2011 Strategic Planning Meeting for Staff of BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights with the theme: Documenting our Stories and Tracking Impact: A Tool for Taking BAOBAB to the Next Level held December 14-21, 2011 at Erata Hotel in Accra, Ghana. The SPM convened 15 staff, 1 outreach coordinator and 2 board members who came together to share their work experiences of 2011 and work plan for 2012. It also provided an opportunity for increasing staff skills on Monitoring and Evaluation towards effective programming.

Background Information:
BAOBAB’s annual Strategic Planning Meeting (SPM) is a time for assessing and reviewing its programmes, projects, mission statement, vision, objectives and staff capacity towards sustaining BAOBAB. The SPM is usually the final activity for the year and serves as a forum through which the organization reviews its activities, events, projects and programmes. The planning meeting provides the space for strengthening staff team spirit. In addition, the annual planning meeting provides the space for effective calendar planning for the upcoming year. For therapeutic and strategic reasons –the annual planning meeting is normally scheduled to take place outside the office location (or country if funds are available), this is to give room for enough deliberations without distractions but also to serve as a ‘new’ environment to invigorate, and create space for tactical thinking towards strengthening activities aimed at achieving the organization’s vision and improving its standard

The 2011 SPM sought to equip staff with necessary skills to effectively monitor and evaluate BAOBAB’s projects toward increasing efficiency of the organization’s programs and services. Effective monitoring and evaluation of all projects will ensure improved project tracking, record keeping, and encourage strategic/innovative methods of project implementation. Other thematic sessions for 2011 SPM were Online Security Training, Team Building, Stress Management, Effective Writing Skills and BAOBAB’s Vision and Mission Statements.

Individual Reports
In line with the objectives of the organization’s annual assessment, the staff of the organization including the Abia state coordinator collectively reviewed the staff work performance output. This was aimed at facilitating an effective launch into the 2012 programmes and activities. 16 personnel including the outreach members each made a five – minute presentation on their respective activities in the year. The volume of work and achievements recorded by the organization was amazing despite challenges that the organization faced in 2011.

Workgroup Reports
BAOBAB’s project activities are divided into 5 thematic areas of focus that are interrelated. Presentations by each workgroup was subject to an objective assessment to encourage the culture of learning and sharing best practices and challenges encountered during the year

The Training Sessions
As already indicated, training was conducted on various thematic issues to build staff capacity but the key focus was the training on Monitoring and Evaluation flowing from the theme of 2011 SPM. In summary, Monitoring was described as the routine process of keeping track, observing and checking the outcome of a project in a qualitative and quantitative manner over a period of time while Evaluation was described as the use of social research methods to systematically investigate programme effectiveness which can be considered at different levels, vis-à-vis Process level, Outcome level, and Impact level.

Conclusion
At the end of the meeting, staff, Board members and outreach coordinator all reiterated the importance of the SPM as a key factor in ensuring successful organizational programming and repositioning BAOBAB to address current challenges. The training sessions sharpened staff skills and increased their ability to implement, monitor/evaluate and document the organization’s activities in a manner that will help sustain the BAOBAB’s mission and vision.

November 24th - December 9th

16 days of Activism against Gender based Violence

BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB) organized various activities during the 2011 16 days of activism. These activities include; a media conversation, Peer Educators’ training on GBV and leadership training for young boys and girls, respectively, between the ages of 13 -17 years and a solidarity walk by Men and Boys against Violence against Women (MABVAW). Below is a summary of the activities:

Peer Educators’ training on GBV and leadership training for young boys and girls

BAOBAB organized back-to-back Peer educators’ and leadership trainings for young boys as well as for young girls. The peer educators training is aimed at sensitizing young boys on gender issues and the need to respect and promote the rights of women. Some key outcomes of the training were; a change in views and perception on various issues of gender as the meeting progressed. This was noticed during their various group presentations and role plays. At the end of the training, the boys said they will share the training with their friends and classmates as well as write articles and poems to be placed the notice board in their schools.

The leadership training for girls provided the girls with space to begin to view themselves as leaders and dispel views or perceptions that they were ‘not suited’ for such roles. The training was very participatory and this enabled the girls to open up and contribute to the training which was slow for them to do at first due to stereo-types and issues of socialization that women/girls should be ‘quiet’ or ‘seen and not heard’. The training created the space for the girls to open up about their fears, and also talked about their life experiences. The two trainings also provided the opportunity to sensitize the boys and girls regarding the issue of rape and educate the teens that “Rape is NEVER the fault of the girl”

Press Conversation

The press conversation took place in BAOBAB’s office with members of various media houses present (both print and electronic). The press conversation coincided with the peer educator training for young boys. A press statement was read by the Ag. E.D. on the need to end violence against women. Members of the media commended BAOBAB’s yearly initiative and asked if BAOBAB had statistics of the number of violations in Nigeria. It was agreed that the media and CSO’s needed to partner to be able to effectively document these cases.
Punch Newspaper, Radio Nigeria, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and some other major newspapers in Nigeria covered the training events

Men’s Walk against Violence against Women - December 9th

This year’s men’s walk and sticker campaign against violence against women took place at the Ogudu Ori-oke bus stop and environs. Men who are friends of BAOBAB, service providers as well as young boys’ and police officers took part in the walk.
The walk started with a brief talk at BAOBAB’s office to enlighten participants on what the 16 days of activism is about and the need for men to add their voices against issues of violence against women.

The campaign was very successful as many people were receptive and asked for specific stickers to give to people who they knew were perpetrators of violence against women.
After the walk, the men were asked if they had any suggestions or comments for future walks. The police commended BAOBAB for this initiative and said this would go a long way in helping the police address issues of violence against women. The men also appreciated this initiative and suggested that addition to hosting a Facebook account they should have quarterly meetings where they could be further sensitized on issues of violence against women.

July 6th - 8th

Counseling and Mediation Training for BAOBAB's Staff in Lagos State.

BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB), being an organization that advocates the rights of women has been involved in responding to a lot of cases on violation of women human rights on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against them in terms of rape, divorce, child custody and maintenance, sexual harassment and many more. Over the last years BAOBAB has mediated a great number of different mediation cases especially on violence against women. From 2005 to date over 100 cases have been recorded, It is sad that these violations are still rampant in our society and it was in this line of thought that BAOBAB felt the staff needed to be further equipped to handle such cases in a more dynamic and strategic perspective. The training was facilitated by Bridget Osakwe of West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP), Toyin Falade of Innovative Strategy for Human Development (ISHD), Favor Irabor (BAOBAB) and attended by all the staff members of BAOBAB.

The main objective of the training was to enhance the capacity of the BAOBAB staff members on basic counseling and mediation, because their work does not only apply when working with BAOBAB but also outside their work environment and to create an enabling environment for proper management of mediating cases of violation of women’s human rights.

Toyin with her interactive training method defined both Counseling and Guidance in depth and gave the similarities and differences between the two terms, with emphasize on the points that in Guidance, solutions are provided by the expert while in Counseling the solutions come from the client. Toyin also highlighted the important values in Counseling, emphasizing that the counselor should show commitment to the following: Show respect in human rights and dignity; Support and alleviate personal distress; Appreciate the differences in culture and human experiences and remain non-judgmental; Provide adequate counseling services whilst ensuring the integrity of the client/counselor relationship; Maintaining client confidentiality and ethical principles.

Bridget’s session was also very interactive and enjoyable. Her knowledge in conflict management was unquestionable. She emphasized the fact that conflict doesn’t have to be violent. It can be an opportunity for change but that if mishandled it could lead to violent conflicts. Bridget listed the following as positive use of conflict: Promoting group cohesion; Increases group productivity; It strengthens relationships and promotes necessary change. Various conflict handling styles were discussed in relation to effective procedures of handling mediation cases with emphasis on the disposition of the staff member towards the client.

Favour’s session gave participants an overview of the domestic violence law of Lagos state. The discussion was interactive, detailed and simplified to make the laws better understood in order to aid staff in handling different mediation cases.

The training was a success as staff members were better equipped with information on effective techniques on handling mediation cases and hence the planned objectives were achieved.

June 20th - 24th

Regional Young Women’s Leadership Institute. held at Coconut Grove Regency Hotel, Accra, Ghana

In consolidating the partnerships commitment to promote young women’s leadership in the global south, the Africa hub of WLP -BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, Nigeria in collaboration with the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace (WLP)—USA organized a 5-day regional leadership institute in Accra, Ghana, with the theme, “Young women re-defining and transforming the leadership agenda in Africa – A strategic approach towards sustainable democracy and development in the region”. The institute convened 21 dynamic and passionate women from eight (8) countries within the region –Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra-Leone, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Egypt. The objectives of the Institute include - empowering young women across Africa to embrace the principles of horizontal, participatory and truly democratic leadership, and enabling participants to identify and develop a shared vision, and communication, mobilization and advocacy skills, among others, for effective leadership. The institute also aimed at promoting the use of innovative technologies for solidarity networking and campaigns.

The institute commenced with a brief opening ceremony with a relatively significant media presence. In her opening remarks, the Acting Executive Director of BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, Ms. Chibogu Obinwa, mentioned that the fact that one of the greatest challenges facing the region is in the area of leadership, and this informed the need for the partnership to initiate a project that would transform the leadership agenda from its original vertical and hierarchical structure to one that is horizontal, participatory, inclusive, and gender sensitive.

The Executive director of Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment (WiSE), Ms. Adwao Bame, welcomed all the participants to Ghana. In her address, she talked about the general gender gaps and the need for young women to take up the responsibility to transform the continent. She further stated that the needs for capacity building programme were very high and thus advised that young women made the best use of the opportunity.

The sessions were highly participatory with intermittent role plays, smaller group practical sessions, debates and plenary discussions. Participants taking advantage of the diversity in the group learned various trends of gender discrimination and power dimensions but also recognized the fact that despite being a diverse group of women, they shared a common experience and challenge of having been at one point or the other in their life subjected to gender discrimination either in the family, school, community and other social arenas. Sharing the case studies extracted from the WLP Leading to Choices, and Multi Media training manuals, as well as BAOBAB’s Human Rights Training from a gender perspective manual, participants were awed in discovering ways of deconstructing dominant ideologies and gender stereotypes as well as applying the best form of power relations –the ‘power with’ and ‘power within’.

In a consensus building interactive process, participants arrived at a group vision “An Africa where good leadership, gender equality and Freedom from all forms of Gender-Based Violence is an everyday practice.” To actualize this vision, there was a strong component of the use of innovative technologies to advance the groups’ post institute action plans, as participants formed three (3) groups –covering Facebook activism, blogging activism and Twitter activism. The idea was for each group to take on the responsibility to initiate on-line solidarity exchange information, articles and alerts for support, through their respective on-line social media, and move the larger group to action.

Some of the key outcomes of the institute, which was evident by a comparative analysis of the pre-institute survey and the institute evaluation, were that participants embraced a new form of transformative leadership that they had not known prior to the institute. The media presence and reportage were overwhelming and consequently gave substantive visibility to the institute. Participants felt a sense of new commitment, confidence and energy to move the talk to action due to their personal action plans and on-line group plan of action. As of the time of this report, a yahoo discussion group had commenced (ywli_accra2011@yahoogroups.com), as well as an active blog –(see - http://youngwomenleadersaccra.blogspot.com/2011/07/lets-not-be-afraid-to-speak-out.html

Kindly click below to view the media reports on the Institutes:

"Women Urged To Break Male-Dominated Barriers" - The Ghanaian Times, Tuesday June 21, 2011

"Gender Stereotype Affects Women Leadership Potentials - WLP" - The Ghanaian Trust, Thursday 23rd - 27th June 2011

"25 Women Attend Leadership Training" - Daily Graphic, Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Africa Regional Young Women’s Leadership Institute Underway

June 8th - 9th

The Evaluation of Political Education Training for Young Women and Female Politicians in Abia State.

Between June 8 and 9 BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights evaluated the impacted of the political training for young women and female politicians in Abia State, eleven months after the training. The main objective of the evaluation was to assess the impact of the political training on the participants and on their immediate constituencies; share success stories and challenges experienced by participants in the process of implementing their plan of action; and strategise on the way forward. Twenty six of the young women attended while Twenty-Five of female politicians participated in the evaluation which was carried out separately, the first day was for the young girls while the female participants were evaluated on the June 9, 2011- the second day of the program. A total of 60 participants were trained, 30 young women and 30 female politicians.

Participants from the two groups described their efforts, challenges and successes in sharing information gained from the training with their pears and other members of their constituencies. According to one of the young women, the training made her see herself as a leader and she decided to contest for Course Representative in her department and won. She stated that she had to overcome several challenges but the most difficult was overcoming financial responsibilities that she faced as the Course Representative.

In another instance, two of the young women who also participated in the training in July 2010 supported a female student to contest for the post of Student Union Government (SUG) President in their school. They described the steps they took to organize the campaign, form slogans, mobilise groups and encouraged other female student to vote for a female SUG president for the school. This particular experience was stunning, against the backdrop of female students who are constantly stereotyped to accept the position of Vic President of the SUG in virtually all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Another young woman expressed her delighted in supporting her mentor (one of the female politician’s that was trained under this project) through the April 2011 general election – she was actively involved in the politician’s campaign activities and gained immense experience.

A number of the participants (young women and politicians) reported the successful use of negotiation skills gained during the training. Specifically, two students described the processes they utilized in negotiating a reduction in the price of handouts produced by one of their lectures. Furthermore, one of the politicians that stepped-down to allow her opponent win the election also narrated her dialogue with the State Governor who has in principle promised to give her an appointive position in the state.

In all, majority of participants trained under this project reported clearly benefitted from the training and are actively applying and sharing skills received from the training. One of the outstanding highlights from the evaluation process was when one of the students declared, “I have found out that politics is very sweet!)

April 6th – 8th

Information, Communication & Technology (ICT) Capacity Building Training for BAOBAB Staff

ICT continues to play an important role in the development and promotion of women’s human rights as ICT-enabled tools such as blogs, twitter, online petitions, e-newsletter, mobile phone, facebook, bulk SMS, digital storytelling, you-tube, flickr etc and services offer new terrain to combat acts of violence against women and expand women’s human rights advocacy. The striking connections between the human rights of women, women’s empowerment and ICT therefore prompted the need to build knowledge, instill, strengthen and familiarize BAOBAB staff with new social networking and advocacy tools and technology, thus, the training for BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights Staff.

The training was highly participatory with hands-on learning techniques, plenary presentations by participants and sharing of experiences and strategies useful in advocating women’s human rights by participants. The pre-training survey revealed that about 60% of the participants wanted to sharpen their skills in various ICT tools. It also revealed that participants at some point in time overlooked and sometimes, downgraded the usefulness of some ICT tools – particularly new social networking tools.

The practical sessions brought to the fore participants’ zeal to advance the cause of women’s human rights, especially as tools that are mostly cost effective and easily accessible such as personal mobile phones which all participants had at least one can be made use of. The fact that personal blogs (which is free and also serves as a personal website to a level) created an excited and quest to know more, as well as opening one for the work done as a professional level and personal level.

Using 100% practical exercise of selection of appropriate tools to use in advancing the cause for women’s empowerment, blogging and micro blogging for awareness raising, the use of various social networking sites for building networks and campaigning, the effectiveness and gains of using video and mobile phones for advocacy, the steps in engaging online petitions, and security considerations brought more enlightenment and knowledge to the view and subsequent use as well as advancement in the use of the above listed ICT tools.

Some of the key outcomes of the training, which was evident by a comparative analysis of the pre-training survey and the post training evaluation, were that participants were able to upload videos and photos on various online tools, the practical steps in getting an online petition done. A computer system with internet connection has been set up for staff members use to further empower themselves at an individual base and also to continue to use as a tool in advocating for the rights of women. Also, the organisation will utilize and document accurately and timely, videos and photos of events and programmes that promotes and protects the rights of women through the newly acquired flip video camera.

March 29th - 30th

Conversation with Female Political Candidates in Lagos State.

BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB) recognizes the need to partner with politicians in the quest for transformative leadership that will ultimately lead to options for citizens in society, and in particular women, who have been disproportionately affected by defective leadership in the past. With this in mind, BAOBAB in partnership with Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) organized a 2 day meeting with Lagos State female political candidates from various political parties and members of the media. The meeting which was a capacity building meeting and interactive session, took place on the 29th – 30th March 2011 with support from the UNWomen. The objectives of the meeting were to: Promote a gender sensitive culture within the political terrain; Share the principles of horizontal, consensus-building, and participatory leadership, and learning approaches in the political terrain; Enable participants to identify and develop strategies towards effective communication, gender sensitive and ethical campaigning, and identifying their political message and/or agendas; Build the self-esteem and confidence of participants to engage with the media and provide them with the opportunity to engage with them (media).

The first day was a mini-capacity building session with the political candidates on effective ethical campaigns and agenda setting. It provided a platform for the female political candidates to learn how to constructively present their manifestos when engaging with the media to ensure that they send out the right message and make the case for their campaign. Some of the tips shared for addressing the media included knowing the core needs of their constituencies and being able to articulate them as well as stating factual statistics of issues that affect the people they want to represent and how they intend to bring about change.

The second day was the interactive session between the media and the female political candidates in Lagos State. This gave the female candidates the platform and space to share their political programs with the media and consequently the general public.

At the end of the meeting, the female political participants had gained knowledge on how to apply transformational, horizontal and participatory gender sensitive leadership models and skills within the political terrain and their respective constituencies. They also gained knowledge on how to effectively campaign both in their constituents and with the media.

March 16th – 20th

Outreach National Planning Meeting

BAOBAB for women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB) held its annual Outreach National Planning Meeting between March 16th – 20th, 2011 in Lagos. This meeting was aimed at reviewing Outreach activities of the previous year and developing a plan of action for 2011 outreach activities. The theme of the meeting was “Identifying alternative sources of funds for outreach work.” Participants included a team of BAOBAB staff, representatives from BAOBAB’s eleven Outreach teams and the newly created Abia outreach team. The BAOBAB teams from Plateau, Katsina and Oyo States were unavoidably absent from the meeting.

Teams gave a report of their activities during the previous year and shared information on how they organized activities around women’s rights issues in the different states in 2010.For example the Kano State team worked extensively on women’s participation in Politics by mobilizing female politicians for the Political Education Training organized by BAOBAB. Teams also discussed the challenges encountered and strategies used to overcome them. This was beneficial as teams were able to learn from one another’s experiences.

As part of enhancing the capacity of Outreach team members, various sessions on how to collaborate with other NGOs to implement projects, source for fund and on how to effectively write financial and Narrative reports. Each outreach team listed their proposed activities for 2011.

The 2011 outreach meeting was a success as it had each team prepare a strategic plan of action for the year and had better enhanced skills on ways to further increase their visibility in their various constituencies through advocacy work.

March 8th, 2011

International Women’s Day

BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights in collaboration with Embassy of Sweden, Nigeria organized a seminar to commemorate the 100th year of the International Women’s Day celebration on March 8th, 2011 with the theme Equal Access to Education, Training, Science and Technology, Path to Decent Work for Women. The event took place at Planet One Entertainment Limited, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Maryland, Lagos. Participants at the event include The Swedish Ambassador, his Excellency Mr. Per Lindgärde, Professor Atsenuwa the Executive Director of Legal Research and Resource Development Centre (LRRDC), Mrs. Tola Rotimi the Director of Office of Public Defender (OPD), media representatives, students, Civil Society Organizations (CBOs), civil servants as well as a team of BAOBAB staff.

The Swedish Ambassador in his presentation acknowledge that discrimination against women is global thing and as a result women needs to come together to fight the menace. Professor Atsenuwa is her presentation highlighted the importance of women’s work to nation’s development and sustainability of home front. She said March 8th should not only be about celebration of International Women’s Day but the beginning of Women’s Calendar worldwide. One of the media representatives, Ebun Babalola of Vanguard sought to know what the Office of Public Defender is doing in respect of rape cases being reported in the newspapers. The OPD director responded that when such cases are reported, they are properly documented and she personally sees to it that the culprits are arrested by the police. Her office also ensures that victims are sent to the hospital for proper treatment and when applicable these victims, come survivors are removed from their abusive situation and provide with government custody. Sindi Medar-Gould in her contribution said our lives should not be handed over to others, so the question of what NGOs are doing is uncalled for, rather the question should be what are we as individuals doing? It is time to walk the talk.

Some of the notable comments from the participants include:

• The need to ensure a gender sensitive education curriculum in schools.
• Media should give more visibility to issues that promote women’s rights.
• The need to focus on issues as the affect women throughout they – it should not be limited to just one day.
• Planning for change on women’s human rights issues is not enough, policies and implementation of existing laws needs to be improved upon.

February 28th - March 5th, 2011

Political Education Training in Kano State

The third phase of the UN Women supported Political Education Project took place in Kano between February 28th and March 5th 2011.The training was held for political female aspirants/leaders and selected undergraduates of tertiary Institutions in Kano State. The political education training like the two previous ones held in Abia and Kogi States were organized with the following objectives: Promote a gender sensitive culture within the political terrain and academic institutions; Share the principles of horizontal, consensus-building, and participatory leadership; Empower women and men to have a shared vision that will transform the leadership agenda towards achieving social justice and gender equality; Enable participants to identify and develop strategies towards promoting women’s visibility and involvement in strategic decision making positions within their institutions, among their peers, in politics, their families, and their communities. The training was also aimed at building the self-esteem and confidence of participants to take up leadership challenges even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

The training sessions were tailored and adapted to respond to women’s rights and religious interpretations in the context of Kano State. The facilitators and participants engaged in constructive conversations in an attempt to deconstruct myths and cultural stereotypes that continue to prevent women from participating in decision making.

An overview of the Political Education Capacity Building for Young Women:

The workshop included a number of sessions, one of which examined “Identifying Political Issues, Developing Our Message”. During this session, A participant detailed her dream for Nigeria to have better leadership, with more qualified leaders that would serve the nation and ensure that everyone benefits from the development process.

During the training with female political aspirants, there was substantive discussion on
“Ethical Politics”, which looked at accountability, transparency, fairness, inclusiveness, and tolerance in the political arena. In one of the group presentations on “Code of Conduct”, participants identified the following set of principles and code of ethics: “To know my constituency to the best of my capacity”; To know the priorities of my constituency; To be in constant and effective communication with stake-holders”. In addition the participants recognized the following principles: “To abide by the rules and regulations”;To be gender sensitive in all capacities”; “To maintain political promises”. Participants also identified some policies that they would adapt: “To include women in my administration”; To investigate the issues that affect the girl child in Nigeria”; “To empower and educate citizens”; To provide job opportunities” and To ensure basic amenities for the community, in areas of health services, education, social facilities etc.

The immediate training objectives were met including identifying mentors from among the women politicians to mentor the young women undergraduates. This mentoring relationship and process is part of the political education training with expected long term results. The participants emphasized their desires and plans to further deconstruct, and address the barriers which have prevented women from engaging in politics.

February 24, 2011

Women’s Political Participation and decision-making: challenging Fundamentalisms

On Thursday February 24, 2011 BAOBAB for Women’s human rights based in Lagos Nigeria hosted a panel at the 55th Session of The Commission on the status of women at the Church Center New York. The goal of the presentation was to share with partner organizations, individuals, friends and collaborators the challenges facing women’s quest to contribute to development and nation building leading to the devising of strategies towards accelerating the inclusion of women at all levels.

The panel which was well attended had presentations from panelists who discussed the issues militating against women’s inclusion linking it to fundamentalisms:

- Sindi Medar-Gould the Executive Director of BAOBAB for women’s human rights welcomed participants, commending them for choosing to attend its event.

- Lina Abou-Habib, Executive Director of Collective for Research & Training on Development Action from Lebanon who served as the moderator introduced speakers stating their various roles and speaking time.

- Ene Ede, the Executive Director of Equity Advocates based in Nigeria started by commending the work of BAOBAB for women’s human rights and for creating the space for sharing and learning. She stated that Nigeria as a nation is operating on what she described as ‘democratic deficit’ mentioning the numerous laws, treaties and consensus documents Nigeria have signed to, which unfortunately have not translated into opportunities for women and girls. She regretted the situation whereby civil society organizations and individuals are saddled with the responsibility of playing the role of governments. Ene enumerated burdens that African women are saddled with, the lack of attention to their ability to multitask, which if harnessed will lead their countries to huge progress. She spoke about the lack of data to support women’s efforts and their contributions, emphasizing near absence of women at all structures and electoral bodies. Ene condemned the ‘hand picking’ of few women for positions to implement ‘men’s agenda’. Her presentation noted that the recent events taking place within the polity in Nigeria does not in any way reflect the present governments’ commitment to 35% affirmative action, while noting that of 63 political parties in Nigeria only 1 party has a woman as its chairperson. In conclusion she urged women to work as support networks to other women, the need to mentor and work with young women to ensure sustainable positive change.

- Wunmi Asubiaro representing Gender and Affective Action, a network of non-governmental organizations with BAOBAB as member of its Steering Committee, presented how fundamentalisms have been used to deny women spaces. According to Wunmi, religious fundamentalism have been used to perpetuate the game of exclusion and continued questioning of women’s desire to be ‘on top’ of men. She also noted how issues of ethnicity have been used to deny women spaces as there is insistence for political party representative to be indigenes, which obviously work against women. She also noted the devastating impact of negative cultures which stipulate roles for women and how their role as mothers and care givers do not fit with public appointments and public offices. She concluded her presentation by stressing the need to continue to document women’s experiences and challenges in order to serve as a tool to encourage other women to participate. She is of the view that affirmative action is still the means towards achieving change and women’s inclusion.

- Wajeeha Al Baharna, a WLP partner from Bahrain shared experiences as WLP partner on the work they are doing in Bahrain. She stated that women’s understanding of their leadership potentials can help stop the structures that hold them down. She informed participants at the panel of the challenges her country is currently facing even as there is a call for reform in Egypt, noting the complete absence of women in the structures for reform. She however explained that their effort as WLP partners is helping women to understand the concept of leadership and why they should become involved. She described their work which she says supports the mentoring of young women to the understanding of inclusive leadership and active participation at all levels.

The participants shared useful strategies and ways to tackle women’s challenges and made the following submissions:

 Need for civil society to take the lead and monitor affirmative action and training of women.

 Need for women to revisit their agenda and establish support networks in order to surmount the enormous challenges they face and the creation of women’s fund to support female aspirants.

 Need to re-visit existing laws, and when and where necessary, hold governments accountable.

 Need to continue to interrogate states, intergenerational dialogues and effective collaboration with media.

 Continuous training and re-training of women political aspirants.

Sindi heartily thanked participants for the useful discussions and insights, stating that organizations should in their respective countries seek to overcome various forms of fundamentalisms militating against women. She said they could only do so when they move from providing electoral education to political education for women. She stated that political education will enable women to understand that the issues they consider personal are indeed political. In her closing comments she informed the house that as the government of Nigeria elects its leaders come April 2011, and close the polls, BAOBAB for women’s human rights will be opening its books to ensure that women have the right information to enable them participate in their great numbers at subsequent elections.

February 7th - 13th, 2011

Political Education Training in Kogi State

BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights from February 7th to 13th organized a back- to- back Political Education training for young women in tertiary institutions and female political aspirants in Kogi State. The main objectives of the training was to promote gender sensitive culture within the academic institutions; to share the principle of horizontal leadership; to promote women’s visibility and involvement in strategic decision making positions and to build the self esteem and confidence of participants to take up leadership challenges even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

The training which was participatory and practical had in attendance thirty young women from Kogi State University and Kogi State Polytechnic. The second training had in attendance thirty women politicians in Kogi state. In the course of the training, participants identified some political issues in the state to include thuggery during election period, the exclusion and sidelining of women from decision making positions, gender discrimination as a result of patriarchy and tribalism in all sectors. In a bid to address these issues participants were willing to sensitize their fellow students and other political aspirants in their various communities on the need to put aside their differences and embrace unity in diversity for development of the state.

The session on “mapping out our political scene” had participants brainstorming and acting/dramatizing on how to formulate and implement their campaign strategies other than the way it used to be done. The session encouraged participants to be proactive and to re-strategize in order to gain the confidence and support of members of their constituencies. In the process, informative and educative slogans were developed and the participants bought the idea of networking with the media. Some of the slogans on the need to vote for women were:

• She wins, problem solved.
• No women, No men
• Change is possible, We are equal
• Ba mata, Babu Nigeria-No women No, Nigeria
• Awon obirin, awanbe- Women are there

The session on negotiation/ compromise had the participants working on how to give and take in their political ambition without losing out because they had often been sidelined each time they were requested or forced to step down for an opponent without any form of compensation. Some of the participants had the vision of seeing themselves as the first female governor in Kogi State, to be ministers, counselors, chairpersons. During one of the breakout sessions, one of the groups came up with a plan to build the first airport in Kogi- this is something that all the participants as well as resource persons agreed was very essential for the development of the state.

At a formal opening ceremony of the training for the politicians a number of media groups were represented and were intimated on the general overview of the political education training in the state. In attendance at the media brief were female aspirants in the state and the representative of the First Lady of the state, Honourable Railiat Ajana, the Special Adviser to the first lady on Women‘s Affairs. In her speech she urged women not to relent on their efforts in seeking for political positions in the state and also encouraged the female aspirants to actively participate at the training. She thanked BAOBAB for organizing the political training for women in Kogi State, according to her, the sky was the limit for the women in Kogi. She ended the speech by stating that she “fore saw that one day Kogi State would have a female governor”.

The following were the immediate outcome of the training: participants gained more strategies on campaigning; increased confidence to succeed against all odds in their political ambition; acquisition of additional skills and confidence in making presentations in political rallies which a number of the participants said they were unable to do before the training.

February 2nd - 4th, 2011

Sexuality and Reproductive Rights Training for BAOBAB staff members

With support from the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights commemorate the 2011 African Regional Day for Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Day(February 4th) with a Sexuality and Reproductive Rights Training for its staff, held between February 2nd and 4th 2011. The overall objective of the training was to enhance the knowledge of staff members on sexuality rights issues, give them a better understanding on the link between violence against women and sexuality rights, and also to help improve staff members’ ability to engage BAOBAB’s constituency on issues of sexuality rights.

The training was an enriching experience. Various topics were discussed at length. These included in depth analysis of women’s Sexuality and Reproductive Health Rights, Patriarchal control of women’s sexuality, women’s sexuality linked to violence against women and the challenges facing women’s rights activists in carrying out advocacy on these issues in Nigeria as well as a review of the relevant laws to seek for adequate protection of women under the law.

Specifically, the session on “Legal framework: Sexual Rights” introduced participants to the laws present in Nigeria and internationally, which either guarantee or deny sexuality rights. Significantly, it was noted that there is no single document in Nigeria, which ensures Sexual and Reproductive Rights for its’ citizens; this session focused mostly on international treaties such as CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the AU Protocol (Protocol to the African Charter On Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa), etc. After discussing some of the general background issues concerning sexuality rights, Staff members were able to focus on more specific issues referenced above, such as “Violence Against Women”, “Patriarchal Control of Women’ Sexuality”, “Reproductive Rights”, “Sexuality in LGBTQ Communities” and many more.

Each day also featured a short session on “Wellness Talk” some of the topics addressed were as follows: “Relaxation” as a means of stress management; “Personal care of male and female sex organs” and “Good eating habit”. The wellness talks reaffirmed the need for staff members to take adequate care of their health by imbibing good eating habits and strategies for managing stress both at work place and at home.
Armed with new information and awareness of sexual and reproductive health, the staff members will now use their broadened knowledge in their advocacy work and in relevant personal matters as well.